The victim in a suspicious fatal fire in Hamilton’s north end has been identified.
Emergency crews were called to the multi-residential building at Beach Road and Gage Avenue North at around 7:20 p.m. on Monday, where they found a woman inside one of the apartment units without vital signs.
She was transported to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Hamilton police have identified the woman as Rebekah Pezze, 22, of Hamilton.
An autopsy has revealed that she died as a result of the fire and suffered no external trauma.
They also say that Pezze was not pregnant, despite misinformation circulating that the victim who died in the fire had been pregnant at the time.
Arson and forensic investigators have been processing the scene on Wednesday, along with the Ontario Fire Marshal, who has been called in to investigate how the fire was started.
Detective Sergeant Peter Thom said police arrested a man and a woman in connection with the blaze early Tuesday morning, but the pair were released unconditionally a short time later. He also said police are not looking for any other suspects.
He added that investigators are looking at an ongoing landlord-tenant dispute that may have led to the fire, although they don’t believe that Pezze was involved in that dispute.
According to police, multiple people were living in the unit at a time and investigators believe Pezze was “couch-surfing.”